Cops identify 4 suspects in Munnani case

CHENNAI: Police probing the murder of Hindu Munnani leader K P S Suresh Kumar in Ambattur in June have claimed to have identified four suspects. “We have identified their hideouts and will nab them soon,” a senior police officer said. While three of the suspects are from Melapalayam in Tirunelveli district, one is from Kerala, he said.
A team led by Ambattur deputy commissioner of police A Mayilvahanan has been on the trail of the suspects on the run.Police had questioned two people -- Abdul Karim alias Palani Babu and Umar, the Al-Umma men who were convicted in the Coimbatore serial blasts case – in connection with the murder. Based on the information given by them, police have zeroed in on the four suspects.
Police teams have fanned out to many places to nab the suspects. “We got a good lead and hope to nab the suspects in a day or two,” an investigation officer camping in Tirunelveli said. Police said they are sure that the murder was the handiwork of regrouped Al-Umma operatives.
Suresh Kumar, Tiruvallur district unit chief Hindu Munnani, was hacked to death on June 18, allegedly for making an inflammatory speech at a public meeting in Avadi on December 12, 2013.
Suresh Kumar sustained more than a dozen cut injuries. There was a deep cut on his mouth. On February 22 this year, the Hindu Munnani office in Chintadripet received a threat letter saying leaders of the outfit in Tambaram, Tiruvallur and Chennai would be kidnapped and done to death. A Hindu Munnani office-bearer had lodged a complaint at the Chintadripet police station.
After Suresh Kumar’s murder, a Chennai police team had interrogated Al-Umma operatives Bilal Malik, Panna Ismail and Sikander ‘Police’ Fakrudeen, who were in the custody of the Bangalore police in connection with the bomb blast at the BJP office in Bangalore last year.